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60th out of 90 books
—
14 voters
The Year of Endless Sorrows: A Novel
by
Adam Rapp
New York City, the early 1990s: the recession is in full swing and young people are squatting in abandoned buildings in the East Village while the homeless riot in Tompkins Square Park. The Internet is not part of daily life; the term "dot-com" has yet to be coined; and people's financial bubbles are burst for an entirely different set of reasons. What can all this mean fo...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
December 26th 2006
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Part of me wants to give this book four stars, but I have to be honest - about half way through I gave up and just read the last chapter to get it finished.
Many times while reading I felt as if I were fa-la-la-la-ing through an adult Dr. Seuss story. The technique and style were very clever in the beginning, but after awhile I got tired and sometimes frustrated. Also, there were many similes/comparisons that frankly made no sense at all and sometimes I had to stop reading to try to figure out w...more
Many times while reading I felt as if I were fa-la-la-la-ing through an adult Dr. Seuss story. The technique and style were very clever in the beginning, but after awhile I got tired and sometimes frustrated. Also, there were many similes/comparisons that frankly made no sense at all and sometimes I had to stop reading to try to figure out w...more
I really enjoyed reading this book. Rapp is a beautiful writer, and I found myself copying down many passages for future perusal. I also found myself wishing I could be as eloquent in my writing (and in my thoughts about New York City) as he is.
I laughed out loud quite a bit reading this book, but I often felt like crying, too. This book follows Opie (also nicknamed Homon), whose real name we never learn - which, in and of itself, makes me feel sad. I suppose it's not unusual to not know a prota...more
I laughed out loud quite a bit reading this book, but I often felt like crying, too. This book follows Opie (also nicknamed Homon), whose real name we never learn - which, in and of itself, makes me feel sad. I suppose it's not unusual to not know a prota...more
I regret finishing this book. I read its 400 pages hoping it would get better, but instead it only grew more frustrating as the protagonist became more and more annoying and sinned-against.
It was overwritten, with way too many similes and paragraph after paragraph of descriptions. Rapp tries to be funny and cute and fails over and over again. I didn't like any of the characters, and indeed, almost grew to loathe the nameless protagonist, so that by the end I was glad that horrible things happene...more
It was overwritten, with way too many similes and paragraph after paragraph of descriptions. Rapp tries to be funny and cute and fails over and over again. I didn't like any of the characters, and indeed, almost grew to loathe the nameless protagonist, so that by the end I was glad that horrible things happene...more
I really dont know how to describe this book. Rapp spends so much time doing character development that the plot really gets very little attention. The writing itself is very eloquent and descriptive and the characters are almost larger than life really but the story goes nowhere and I was left with a feeling of incompleteness when I finished the last page. I felt ripped off, all these great characters drew me in but then so much is left untold.
I'm certainly going to look at more of his work, I...more
I'm certainly going to look at more of his work, I...more
Beautiful prose about disgusting things. Any time the phrase "cradling our baby's remains" appears in a novel, you should stop reading it. That is my advice to you.
"I kept my slowly growing novel in the freezer. I had been working on it for months. I liked the idea of putting a day's work in th a sealed compartment designed for preserving food; it somehow married the ideas of nutritional and intellectual subsistence." - p. 53
"It has to do with acute knee pain and the end of the world." - repeate...more
"I kept my slowly growing novel in the freezer. I had been working on it for months. I liked the idea of putting a day's work in th a sealed compartment designed for preserving food; it somehow married the ideas of nutritional and intellectual subsistence." - p. 53
"It has to do with acute knee pain and the end of the world." - repeate...more
At first, a lot of the appeal for me from this book was that it's the story of a freshly graduated newbie in New York City's publishing world. It was easy to relate to because I just closed out my first year doing that same thing in that same city. The stories/sorrows the author/main character (I feel like this is an autobiographical book, but I don't know anything about the author so I can't say fore sure) carefully betrays are out and out weird, largely disgusting, and occasionally serendipito...more
Jun 02, 2007
Sarah
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
transplanted midwesterners, starving artists
This is Rapp's first "adult novel" (he's written several young adult novels as well as some plays). I'm not sure that I would be enchanted by it if I were a real adult, but I'm a sucker for books where I have something in common with the protagonist. The narrator is a 22 year-old writer who grew up in the Midwest, went to a liberal arts college, and then moved to New York. The story chronicles a year or so of his life in the city in the early 1990s, which includes squatting in a building in the...more
It's quirky. It's sometimes wrong. Huge imaginative. It's the best book I've read since "The Brief Wondrous Life..." by Junot Diaz. Also, it uses my favorite literary device: repetition. I simply heart this book. I love that the protagonist is such an antihero.
On a random note, if I hadn't chanced a visit to Barnes & Nobles when I was visiting New York, this probably would have never ended up in my hands and in my head. Some call it fate.
On a random note, if I hadn't chanced a visit to Barnes & Nobles when I was visiting New York, this probably would have never ended up in my hands and in my head. Some call it fate.
There were many things that I liked about this book and there were several parts that were laugh out loud funny (almost anything including The Loach). What I didn't like was that Rapp seems to be addicted to using similes and metaphors, averaging one third sentence, and it became distracting. As I read, I kept wondering what odd comparision he would be making in the next sentence.
And the ending was way out of left field for me. For such a humorous novel, I didn't care for the dark ending.
And the ending was way out of left field for me. For such a humorous novel, I didn't care for the dark ending.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
On the plus side: some very funny parts; main character is nearly my exact age so the cultural references resonate
On the minus side: a lot of gross-out descriptions of the unsavory roommate; painfully watching the main character make bad choice after bad choice; the suspicion that some parts of the book were salvaged pieces of college creative writing assignments
On the minus side: a lot of gross-out descriptions of the unsavory roommate; painfully watching the main character make bad choice after bad choice; the suspicion that some parts of the book were salvaged pieces of college creative writing assignments
i quit this book. despite that i have oodles in common with the protagonist - midwest boy turned poor new york publishing house slag, among other quirks - and that i did find the writing entertaining at times, rapp's tragicomic self-indulgences reek nauseatingly of dave eggars' heartbreaking work of (oh god look how simultaneously touching and funny i can make my) staggering(ly formulaic and vaguely factual memoir-novel) genius. if i remember, they do right to compare the novel with eggars and h...more
I think I like this book mostly for sentimental reasons. It reminds me of when I first moved to Manhattan. Very strange times. The early 90s where the end of an era. By 2002 the city became a massive mall inside a gated community. It made me very nostalgic for my twenties. My salad days as Mamet would say.
Dec 15, 2008
Tanya McQueen
added it
Recommends it for:
fans of Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, or Then We Came to the End
Shelves:
funny-ha-ha
I bought this book because the first fifty pages or so caused me to laugh out loud in the bookstore, which is something that rarely happens. The situations that happen are hilarious and wildly inventive, but the novel goes on endlessly, and about halfway through I was ready for all the shenanigans to be over with. Also, I thought the accent of Basha and her convoluted speech filled with American idioms and expressions used the wrong way a bit much.
I loved the sarcastic tone of this book, the dark descriptions mixed with pointed humor and some of the phrases the author used made me laugh out loud with their randomness. I raced through the first 100 pages of the book and things slowly went downhill from there. By the last 100 pages, I couldn't wait for the book to end. However, I would say that I enjoyed it overall and would definitely read Rapp again.
Mar 06, 2009
Meaghan
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
disaffected twentysomethings
Shelves:
adult-novels,
read-in-2007
This was definitely Adam Rapp's worst book, which is a shame -- his young adult novels are wonderful, but this was sorely lacking. Being Rapp, it was beautifully written, but it was also dull as dishwater. I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen, and nothing did. There was no suspense, no action, nothing but a trickle of beautiful and unusual phrases. Please, please just read Little Chicago or The Copper Elephant before you read this pretentious waste of paper.
About a post collegate Kid from the midwest who moves to the East Vill back in the early 90s of drugs, pimps, riots and more. Funny read w/ some touching points. Oh plus theres a hot polish chick...so that always helps!
You really have to get used to Rapp's writing style. He has quite a well developed vocabulary, and he uses a lot of similes and metaphors. However, I found it to be a very enjoyable read.
Had a hard time with the episodic nature of this book, but I still feel a kinship to the story--a Midwestern boy moving to the big city, the East Village in particular.
Adam Rapp had me laughing hysterically for 350 pages and crying for 50. Although it was a little too long and with a few unnecessary off-shoots, a well written memoir style novel came together nicely in the final chapters.
definitely not a bad writer. the story though? not so great. and this man with the mustache? he was never explained. this was a lazy draft to publish.
I couldn't remember what I thought about this book. So two stars. I remember everything I had a reaction to...this one I felt nothing about.
Story of an aspiring writer, just out of college in the midwest, coming to New York. Some humorous moments, but nothing groundbreaking. Enjoyable.
So underrated; it locked me in. Adam Rapp also wrote the movie Winter Passing, which is incredible as well.
Very enjoyable read, a unique story. I'm not sure I was the right audience but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
This is the story of a young author's first year in NYC in the early 90s. Basically an extreme version of anything that's ever happened to you in New York, disgustingly mythical roommates, questionable loft living, working terribly stifling office jobs while dreaming of working at the creative job you actually came to NY to work on in the first place. While all of this sounds extremely depressing its actually a very funny book.
Its a good read if you want to remind yourself how far you've come, o...more
Its a good read if you want to remind yourself how far you've come, o...more
This book was HILARIOUS. Laugh outloud funny. And also super dark. So, so good.
Nov 03, 2009
Marka
marked it as to-read
I really need to try to read this again. I read most of it, a while back.
Jun 06, 2010
Morgan Berry
added it
I have no idea why I read this book.
I wanted to like this book about an entry-level publishing worker in the early 90s but the stream of homophobic and misogynist language and plot choices and characterizations put me off (for some reason). Also the chapters and chapters of fart jokes. Also the anachronisms in a novel supposedly about its setting. Also the unironic and repeated use of the phrase "making love." Only for those who enjoy reading about self-pitying upper-middle class straight white men and their whimsical adventures i...more
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Adam Rapp says that when he was working on his chilling, compulsively readable young adult novel 33 SNOWFISH, he was haunted by several questions. Among them: "When we have nowhere to go, who do we turn to? Why are we sometimes drawn to those who are deeply troubled? How far do we have to run before we find new possibilities?"
At once harrowing and hypnotic, 33 SNOWFISH--which was nominated as a Be...more
More about Adam Rapp...
At once harrowing and hypnotic, 33 SNOWFISH--which was nominated as a Be...more
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“It was at that moment that I came to the conclusion that there is some link between plants and loneliness. ”
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Oct 02, 2010 11:59am